That is a good question. I have wondered the same thing. Or how about a short vs long bulk rise? Is there a difference? Isn't it all just fermentation?

Jon, I do bulk and ball b/c for me, when I divide the dough and ball it later it's one more opportunity for me to feel the dough and gauge it's consistency/slackness. This is where I determine how much balling or stretch and folds I do to bring the dough back to a proper strength if that makes sense.

I think it depends on the type of pizza you are making. For example, if you are making a room-temperature fermented dough, I would use a bulk rise followed by division and another fermentation period. This is especially true of Neapolitan-style doughs. If you plan to make a cold fermented dough, I would divide the bulk dough into pieces right after the dough comes out of the mixer (or a reasonable time thereafter if some intial fermentation is desired). The division at this point results in dough balls that are round from the outset and retain their round shape. If done later, it is much more difficult to do the division and reshape the dough pieces into nice round balls without deflating the dough or making them harder to shape into skins because of increased elasticity. On rare occasion, you might hear of someone who divides a bulk dough after it has been cold fermented, but that is usually done where there is inadequate cooler space to store large numbers of dough balls. In such cases, it might also be necessary to let the dough balls rest for a while to recover from the handling.

If you are making a dough that is to be used in a commercial dough roller, whether the dough is to be fermented at room temperature or in a cooler/refrigerator, the dough can be stored in bulk. Pieces of the desired weight can be cut from the bulk dough as needed and put through the roller. This is a common approach for making cracker-style doughs or skins that are to be panned (e.g, deep-dish or pan pizzas) or placed on screens/disks pending order fulfillment.